overpopulation speech
Post on 15-Feb-2017
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overpopulation
The population is growing and at an alarming rate, but this rate only became
exponential in the 20th century due to the industrial boom. In this passage
the effects of overpopulation will be discussed, some of which are already
being observed today. And lastly, some possible solutions to counter act
overpopulation will be explored as well.
The Effects & Causes
of Overpopulation
Introduction
Is it just me or is it awfully crowed in here? Well not really… especially if you look at other places like
India, Iraq, or China. Let me ask you another question; who hates traffic. Let’s not kid ourselves,
everyone hates traffic. At one point in America people could drive for miles without seeing another car.
Fun fact, the state of Montana for the longest time didn’t have an official speed limit for its highways,
there wasn’t a need for speed limits, especially if you were the only one on the road. Of course they
have a speed limit now (it’s 80mph), that was only put into place about a decade ago. Only instated
when a driver was pulled over after going a whopping 135mph! Before I go on to discuss the causes &
effects of overpopulation I think it’s imperative that I state why this issue is the biggest issue facing
modern mankind. If you still feel it’s not important to you, by all means don’t listen to me. If you drive a
petrol powered car this speech is significant to you. If you are antiwar, care about the rainforests, are
against GMOs, are for GMOs, if you enjoy not living in a crowed city, eating, or even breathing. If you fall
under any of those categories I promise you this speech more relevant to you than you’d ever imagine.
Thesis
Dan Brown once famously said, “Futurists don’t consider overpopulation one of the issues of the future.
They consider it thee issue of the future.” I personally believe that all of the major world issues such as:
world hunger, poverty, pollution, deforestation, war over resources, and many more can all be wiped
out if we can overcome overpopulation.
Credibility
Believe me for when I say overpopulation is connected to more world issues than you’d believe. Allow
me to give you a brief background on my relevant studies. Growing up in the city of Philadelphia for the
first nine years of my life, I know what an overcrowded situation is, to say the least. Once my dad got a
job near the state’s capitol (Harrisburg) in a small rural county known as Lebanon County, I was
introduced to an entire new environment. I grew up surrounded by mountains, farms, and forests on all
sides of me; for the first time I got to experience the beauty of nature and I fell in love with it. I would go
on hikes, go fishing, and I even went hunting once; I loved the outdoors but I didn’t really know or
understand the science behind it. My first year of high school I was an amateur environmentalist, I
participated in my first peaceful protest, and I joined an ecology club. The club was perfect for me; I was
surrounded by people that I shared a passion with. In high school my grades for math & reading were
good but my grades for the sciences were always great. My senior year I was privileged to compete in
the Environthon and our squad got 1st place in the county! By my junior year I had already start putting
the pieces together and by the first semester I completed my first two-page essay on overpopulation.
And ever since I have been keeping up to date in scientific journals for issues related to overpopulation. I
knew that I wanted to study Environmental Science in College since I was fourteen. But after seeing for
the first time how interconnected overpopulation is to every issue, I realized that this issue isn’t going
solve itself. But if I or anyone were to solve this there would need to be a deep understanding of the
causes and effects. In March of 2014 I focused my studies on overpopulation, studying every aspect of it.
At Lake Erie College not only am I majoring in Environmental Science, but also in Biology. I chose that
route to give myself a broader perspective of what’s truly going on. Population science involves many
fields of study, such as environmental science, ecology, biology, and even political science. If I could give
any advice for studying this topic I would suggest to broaden your domain before you get into the
specifics. This topic is very extensive and is not simple, to effectively comprehend overpopulation, you
have to be a jack of all trades.
Preview
But enough about me let’s discuss the real issue. By the end of this speech my goal is for all of you to
have a better understanding of “why overpopulation is occurring”, the scientific & social factors, the
effects, and lastly… Possible solutions. First, we’ll address where it all begins.
Transition
Modern man first appeared in the fossil records 200,000 years ago, in 1850 the world
population reached one billion. That means it took the entire existence of mankind up until 1850 to
reach its first one billion. Less than one hundred years later the world population reached two billion in
1930, and it reached three billion in 1960, now the population adds a billion every 10 (± 1) years and as
of 2011 the population reached seven billion. Humans are a biological success, Humans are multiplying
and have colonized the globe. The world’s population adds another 220,000 people to it every day, the
world’s population increases annually by 1%. One percent of seven billion is quite significant, to put
things into perspective Bangladesh once suffered from one of the world’s most devastating hurricane
ever, and it wiped out 139,000 people. In only two weeks Bangladesh’s population had already
multiplied & replaced the casualties. The growth rate humans are experiencing is exponential and the
world can obviously not support an infinite population.
The Why
Why is the population experiencing exponential growth? What caused the population to explode in the
20th century? The population of the planet is predicted to reach either nine or ten billion people in 2050
at the rate at which it’s growing, but the question is will the population even make it that far before
dropping? Many population scientists believe we already reached the tipping point and we will face the
consequences in years to come. It’s odd to think this, but the population is currently seven and a half
billion but eighty years ago the population was only 2 billion.
Biological Factors
Every animal abides by the laws of population, humans are no exception and the human population is a
great example. There are two types of growth curves any given population will exercise, the first growth
curve is when a population has minor fluctuations between being over the carrying capacity and being
under the carrying capacity. The carrying capacity is the population any given habitat can sustain; the
limiting factors are the amount of recourses in that habitat, disease, and predators. This is known as the
S – curve. The second curve is the J curve; any population with this trend is doomed to fail. A J – Curve is
represented by exponential growth. Unlike S – Curves they don’t have limiting factors such as predators
& disease, nevertheless the resources are still limited. Invasive species usually follow this trend and can
cause problems for the native species; when there aren’t any predators to keep the populations in
balance the populations will exponentially grow until they deplete their habitat of its resources, which in
return will result in that population to quickly die off and ultimately lead to extinction in that particular
region. Humans are following a J – Curve growth rate and scientists can do nothing but watch and fear
the inevitable. Without limiting factors; disease and resource depletion become more likely. Every
population is hardwired to divide and multiply, from a biological perspective every organism’s main
purpose is to reproduce and to pass on their DNA.
Environmental & Social Factors
Why did the world population begin to explode in the 19th century? Every nation goes through what
population statisticians call the five stages to becoming developed. Prior to the 19th century it was ideal
for mothers to have many children, this practice was even incorporated into many religions and cultures
such as Catholicism and Hinduism. This is because there was a high mortality rate, in fact many women
often died during contraception and most infants died before they reached the age of two, the magic
number was five because if a baby would make it to the age of five its chances of survival went up
dramatically. People also didn’t live as long back then, back then being forty is like being eighty today.
Families had to have high birth rates just to maintain the population. Infant mortality was so high that in
places like India it was seen as a sign from the deities, if a family had many children that made it to
adolescences. Here’s where the problem begins; the problem is actually an easy math problem. Every
developed nation has gone through the stages so their history would be a great example to refer to.
When medicine and safer practices such as removing led from drinking water, boiling drinking water,
cleaning cuts, and etc. are practiced and technology allows farmers to become more productive and
create more food (resources) the mortality rate will drop significantly. This represents the second and
third stage; essentially whenever factors cause the death rate to drop. The problem however is that due
to custom, tradition, and culture families are still having high birth rates. This is why every developed
nation that went through this stage experienced an exponential growth rate. During this time period
they had low mortality rates and yet they still had high birth rates. Developing nations are currently
suffering from this phenomenon. It’s not until the fourth and fifth stage that nations stabilize their
population through education; it’s proven that the best way to control a population is not to pass one
child laws but to give women equal rights, opportunities, and an education. With more education
families are living longer, and on average have two child families, one child families, and even no child
families. Japan is an example of the extreme. Most of Japan’s population is above the age of 45 this is
because the current generations aren’t having as many kids and most families are waiting until the age
of 30. Women in Japan on average are more empowered than women of other countries, especially the
countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia where the women are forced to conceive even if
bearing a child is potentially fatal to that individual. Developing nations that are going through the third
stage are the main reason the world population is exploding. They may not appear to be as
technologically advanced as developed nations of the west like Sweden and the United States, but they
do have enough technology to be more efficient in farming than the best farmers 50 years ago and they
have the same “basic” medical access as the rest of the world. The only thing lacking is the education
and sometimes it’s not even the lack of education it’s the ancient customs that many generations before
them have been practicing. Many scholars feel that these ancient customs and religions are the anchor
holding them back from achieving progress. One practice is having many children, in India it is seen as
good fortune to have many children, some educated women in India are breaking the trend and seeing
that in reality it’s good fortune not to have many kids. For that having many kids will almost
undoubtedly force the family into poverty. Most women in India and other developing nations do not
have the privilege to choose how many kids they are to have, because they are treated like second class
citizens. The amount of children a family will have is almost always decided by the husband. For families
in central Africa, custom and tradition plays a key role for their populations exploding, and lack of
contraception. The population is growing the most rapid in Asia not Africa, this is because Africa
currently has a high death rate due to constant child war, genocide, and diseases like HIV and malaria.
These factors are acting as population limiters but they’re still not significant enough to stabilize the
population. In developing countries all of their economic and environmental problems are linked to the
fact that most of their population is under 30 and uneducated, when a majority of the population is in
the reproductive age range the population will increase. Opposed to developed nations where most of
the population is past the child bearing age. Ideally the population would be at a perfect balance if
developing nations would have families of 2.1 children, the 0.1 to compensate for infant mortality.
Economic Factors
An economy by definition: is the quest to satisfy unlimited wants with limited resources, which is why
many nations including the economy of the United States requires a growing population to create more
jobs and to expand. However, the United States is a developed country. So shouldn’t the population be
declining or at least be stable? The answer is that the population essentially is stable, the growth rate of
the United States is miniscule and the only reason the population isn’t declining is due to immigration.
So the U.S. owes its growing economy essentially to immigrants. Capitalism is greed and greed is a part
of human nature, so this calls for the population to be growing. However in countries like Japan, Italy,
and Germany the populations are declining and in return so is the economy. This is because any
declining population is a population with a majority of the population over the child-bearing ages.
People from the ages 17-40 are prime for an economy’s growth because at that age they are most
productive and are producing goods for the market. People over the age 60 are generally drains on the
economy and are actually taking more from the economy than they are putting in it; countries that have
elderly care are good examples. Every senior citizen that requires elderly care is one more producer at
his prime providing services; internal services do not produce any value that can be sold on the global
market. Countries that are developing have growing economies, however most are constricted to
exporting natural resources such as precious metals, diamonds, and oil. Mining for these resources can
put stress on the people and the environment ultimately leading to shorter lives. Their agriculture is
usually lacking as well for that most of the farming is for cash crops. The local farmers cannot compete
with America’s cheap exported foods.
Germany took advantage of this situation; Syria has been through a drought for over two years
and has been plagued with war for even longer. As an effect, millions of Syrian refugees fled to Europe,
some countries were opposed to accepting any of them for political reasons. Not Germany, they saw an
economic opportunity, in fact not a single German political-party opposed accepting Syrian refuges.
Germany was suffering from a declining population and economy; they figured that accepting refugees
would aid their economy. The young men and children will add to the economy by getting trained in
jobs, work, and become producers. The elderly and women that are not accustomed to working will
contribute by becoming new consumers. Germany has accepted more refugees than any other country;
they have taken in over one million Syrian refugees.
The Disproportion
Some people when confronted with this overpopulation occurrence will suggest that people of
developing nations need to have fewer children, but they believe that American families should still
have just as many kids. But here’s the problem; every child born here in America is more consumptive
than the next 30 children in developing nations. Overpopulation isn’t always about how many people
there are it’s more or less about how much recourses there are and the rate that they’re being
consumed. An American will use thirty times the amount of water than a child in Africa. Americans use
more resources, energy, fossil fuels, and meat than any other country on the planet. America consists of
5% of the world’s population but uses over 20% of the world’s resources. Fifteen percent of the world
population are in developed nations yet Developed nations control anywhere from 90-95% of the
world’s economy. So yes most of the population growth is in developing nations but most of the
resources that are being used are in developed nations, this is a conundrum and quite a mess.
The Effects
Aside from booming economies, overpopulation does not present any benefits to the planet. Experts say
the more the population grows the more stress is being put on the planet and natural habitats to sustain
it. If everyone in the world were to purchase a new car every two years the way most Americans do, we
would run out of resources. Americans on average waste 40% of all food that is produced and if every
other country would do same there would have to be six more Earths to sustain the world population.
Americans also eat more meat than the rest of the world and the domesticated animals that they use
are not adapted to the food that they are grazing, instead of raising native animals like deer that are
adapted to the native plant species. Cows did not evolve in America so the grass and corn that they are
fed are not efficient and for every 10 kilograms of feed they’re given they will produce 9 kilograms of
waste. Highly inefficient farming practices are putting strains on the environment along with
overpopulation. The more people that are on this planet, the more resources will be needed to sustain
them this will cause for loss of natural habitats. Deforestation can occur and is occurring in Brazil; to
deal with the fast growing population, sections of the rainforest are clear cut to be farmed. But the
jungles have poor soil because most of the nutrients were locked away in the trees they just cut &
removed. The result is always the same; the farm will last for five years or until it’s depleted of all the
nutrients in the soil to grow anything and then they will move to the next section of forest and repeat.
Forests are also logged for their lumber, lumber acts as a raw material in constructing homes for people
to live in. Obviously a decreasing population will decrease the need to log for lumber for homes. Cars
and other technology require metals, to obtain these metals strip mines are often the answer. Mining
can be devastating to the environment because of its cruel nature. Strip mining is literally taking a
mountain top off a mountain. An immediate consequence is runoff from the rain often poisons the
nearby bodies of water. The rate of species that are becoming extinct directly correlates with human
population growth. Fossil fuels and precious metals are being consumed at a fast rate that is ever so
increasing, landfills are also becoming big problems. Some resources can be recycled and some food
waste can be composted but even then over 66% isn’t being recycled. This is just leading to the
inevitable and the planet’s downfall, eventually we will run out of resources; that is a fact… we cannot
continue at this rate. The question is what will reduce our population first; war over the dwindling
resources; lack of clean air due to pollution & deforestation, famine, disease, or all of the above? All of
those environmental issues are linked to overpopulation. So what’s our solution?
The Solution
I believe that the biggest issue facing the world today is overpopulation and all of the problems that
come with it. Scientists can individually battle the issues that come with it but it would simply be
delaying the inevitable. All of the world problems, at least from my perspective can be linked to
overpopulation.
Technology
It was technology that pushed the survival rate of infants up, ultimately lowering the death rate, and
increasing the average life expectancy. If people are living longer and infant mortality rates are
exponentially decreasing, then the population is going to go up unless either the death rate increases or
the birth rate decreases. A stable population is one with a high death rate and a high birth rate or one
with a low death rate and a low birth rate. Regardless it must be balanced, any other way and the
population will either decline or increase. But maybe the population can continue to grow; maybe
technology will continue to make farms more efficient? One problem with over population is lack of
living space for that the amount of space that is habitable for humans is limited. But there is still plenty
of space left and most of which is still untouched, perhaps this won’t be the answer if the population
reaches ten billion, then what? In dense cities like Shanghai there are huge skyscrapers that are fully
committed to housing people. Some can hold over 2,500 people, so technology can increase available
living, however there is a limit and with an exponential growth rate surely that limit will be reached.
Food
There are many in the world that are malnutritioned and malnourished, which means some people are
not getting their required daily supply of nutrients and others are simply not consuming enough calories.
It’s estimated that approximately 15% of the world’s population does not have access to clean drinking
water. With numbers like that it’s hard to imagine how the planet could successfully sustain another
three billion people. Nonetheless some of the greatest inventions ever invented were came in a time of
need, adversity sparks innovation. The atomic bomb was created because it was needed (yeah the bomb
is a devastating world altering device, but from a scientific perspective it was a break through, for the
first time humans successfully split an atom; the simplest and smallest observable unit.). Some could
make the argument that the need for more efficient crops and domesticated animals could spark for just
that. And actually technological advances have been in place since the 1980s. Scientists have been
modifying crops to become pesticide resistant and for domesticated animals to become bigger, these
organisms are genetically modified and are abbreviated “GMOs” and to be quite honest, without them
there is no way we can sustain the Earth’s current population. They are so popular and efficient that
over 95% of all farmers use them because the farmers that aren’t using them simply cannot compete.
They’re so popular that the average grocery store is loaded with them and approximately 96% of its
foods are genetically modified or contain genetically modified substances. However this like before has a
limit and comes down to the fact that Earth and its resources are finite, meaning that they are limited.
All of these technological advances are merely giving off a false illusion of security, but eventually no
matter how advance the technology is the carrying capacity will be reached, resources will be scarce and
people will die. However, if a solution isn’t reached by then there would inevitably be a war over the
scarce resources, nationalism will kick in, “us against them” mentality will kick in, it’s human nature.
GMOs vs. World Hunger
In most cases picking sides isn’t so black and white, but for a choice such as GMOs and world hunger the
choice is so simple. The science has verified GMOs to be harmless for consumption and world hunger is
obviously a bad thing regardless. The only reason there’s any controversy with GMOs is because most of
the people that oppose it, don’t understand what they’re opposing. Most people do not know that
GMOs are genetically modified organisms, which is perfectly fine. But it’s not fine to then spread false
bashful rhetoric about GMOs. Some people do know what GMO stands for but they still do not
comprehend what a genetically modified organism is. When they hear GMO they immediately picture
meat made in a factory and that is simply not the case. In reality humans have been genetically altering
animals and plants for about 10,000 years. The very existence of domesticated animals such as the cow,
pig, chicken, horse, etc. prove the premise to be correct. Corn, wheat, oranges, potatoes, and bananas
do not occur in nature, these plants exist as alterations or hybrids of their wild ancestors. Our ancestors
were selectively breeding the plants with the most desirable traits for many generations until they had
an organism that can feed their village. They bred the tamest of animals until they were domesticated
and then they took it another step forward by breeding the biggest cows; breeding the chickens that laid
the most eggs; breeding the fastest and strongest horses. Nothing has changed, back then they saw
traits in individuals that they liked and they would breed to capitalize that trait. But often that trait was
associated with many other traits that weren’t always desirable, so perfect breeds would take many
generations to acquire. In modern times we understand how traits are linked to genes and the genes are
decided by the alleles. Now instead of breeding for tens of generations we can isolate certain traits and
behaviors on an allele and insert it into a gene of a zygote. What’s a zygote; a diploid cell resulting from
the fusion of two haploid gametes. Basically, a fertilized egg. Scientists estimate that without use of
modern GMOs the world couldn’t sustain a human population over 4.5 billion. The existence of GMOs
isn’t even optional; world hunger and starvation is a crisis now imagine how bad it would be if three
billion people didn’t have any food to eat… If every square inch of forest, savannah, and grassland would
be converted to farmland to try to feed everyone it still wouldn’t be enough without GMOs. So next
time you hear someone call GMOs bad remind them that three billion people shouldn’t have to starve to
death just because that person is ignorant. (Qui Gon Jinn) once said, “The ability to speak does not make
one intelligent”
And if they’re eating seedless grapes while disliking GMOs, you have permission to laugh at them. The
term fruit by definition is any structure produced from a plant that contains, acorns are fruits, the fluffy
structures dandelions produce are fruits, so yes natural grapes have seeds in them!
Politics & Education
For some countries it’s imperative for people to have smaller families, however this often collides with
culture. Even in America overpopulation isn’t discussed as much as it needs to be, relatively speaking,
it’s in the closet because people do not want to think of a controlling government. A world where the
government mandates how many children a family can have. However, this practice is already being
implemented in China, many people are initially frightened when they hear of this and commonly use
this as criticism towards China. Population experts have different views they feel that it was the right
move in order to combat China’s fast growing population. When China first implemented this law they
knew that if they didn’t the country would face huge challenges such as famine, disease, and even now
they have trouble dealing with all of the waste that is generated. The people of China are content and
instead of fighting the issue they accepted the truth for what it is.
Other experts disagree and do not believe government policies will fix the issue. They look at
countries like Japan as a prime example. Japan went through a revolution in the 1980s as they became
extremely western, some say they became more western than some of the western countries at the
time. One key effect of becoming western was the empowerment of women, women were no longer
content to be stay at home moms and depend on their husband for income. And in the 1990s Japan
went through a minor recession, not because of a Godzilla attack but because of a NATO trade deal.
Most households had to have two sources of income to meet ends meet, this in return started an
empowerment trend that’s been waging strong ever since. Women in Japan became more competitive
in the work force and with a shrinking economy many felt that if they would slow down to carry a baby;
they would be taken out of the race to be at the top of the career ladder. The exact opposite holds true
in countries like India, Bangladesh, and plenty of third world countries that have oppressive practices
towards women. In countries like India women are forced to have children even if giving birth to a child
is fatal, husbands are depicted by being rather selfish and irrational by asking for many children even if
their family cannot sustain a family of such size. Women are often beaten and even burned if they are
unable to conceive a child or give birth to a boy. Women essentially have no say on how many kids they
want to have if they want any. These third world countries are trapped in the past by their cultures and
religions. They ask for large families in order to spread and multiply their religion’s base and also to
ensure the family name will live on. These ancient practices were designed in a time of high death rates
so naturally their culture asks for a high birth rate. Times have changed yet their cultures have not, and
as a result our planet is facing a constant threat of overpopulation. Developed nations by definition are
better educated, and because of their education they have smaller families, the only way to fix this
problem is to spread knowledge and educate future generations.
Conclusion
Ancient practices called for large scale procreation in order to ensure the survival of the human race.
Now the only way to save our species is to drastically reduce procreation. The higher the world
population is the higher amounts of stress people will be putting on the natural environments, and the
more people will die due to lack of resources. The people that are dying due to lack of nutrition and
clean drinking water are not dying because there is not enough food. They’re dying because the
distribution is terrible. About the same number of people die every year due to an eating condition. On
one side it’s obesity and on the other side it’s starvation; there shouldn’t be people dying of too much
food and people dying of not enough food. Most experts & myself agree a good world population is two
billion. Two billion would be the perfect number for everyone to live comfortable lives. When
confronted with this number many would think “you’re crazy”. The current population is 7.5 billion. This
isn’t too crazy when you think about it, the world population was only two – billion 80 years ago.
Reducing and maintaining the world population is the only ethical thing our race can do. Needless to say
that it would take multiple generations to successfully reduce the world population, through means such
as; contraception & education with the goal of reducing the average family size.
“Futurists don’t consider overpopulation one of the issues of the future. They consider
it the issue of the future.” – (Dan Brown)
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